All posts for the month September, 2016

Steven Colbert was interviewing Millie Bobby Brown, the young actress from Stranger Things, and they started talking about fears. She lists off a few things including bungalows. Colbert seems thrown by this because he asks her if a bungalow has a different meaning than what he’s thinking. She explains that she knows exactly what a bungalow is, a house with no stairs, and has a very specific reason she fears them. She feels safer with stairs as they provide an escape route that a one floor home doesn’t. I love the idea of being so aware of your fears. not just knowing that you’re afraid of something but knowing exactly why it scares you. Write a scene that goes into the reasoning behind one of your character’s fears.

The ode is a poem of meant to pay tribute to something or someone. It is meant to be flattering. There are three types of odes: the Horation; the Pindaric; and the Irregular. The Horation and Pindaric have very specific rules about their stanzas. I’m not going to get into them because I prefer the Irregular form but you should definitely look them up for curiosities sake. The Irregular Ode focuses on the element of praise. Write an ode in which you are praising or paying tribute to something that you think others would find odd.

Cricket Media is looking for stories in the realm of science fiction and fantasy. They are particularly seeking stories that lean towards the darker and creepier sides of those genres. There is no entry fee listed and the deadline is October 20, 2016. Check out their website for the full guidelines.

Forage Poetry Journal is currently seeking submissions on a theme of the Poetry of Politics. Please send your poetry, nonfiction, photography, or original artwork as an email attachment (no PDF files, please) to foragepoetry@gmail.com. There is no entry fee for this one and the deadline is October 20, 2016.

I’m making my way through Little Women this week. When introducing the characters in the story the narrator speaks directly to the reader. I don’t see a lot of this in the books I read so it’s always an interesting moment. The way that the narrator speaks to the audience directly can tell you things about the author. Write a scene in which your narrator speaks addresses the audience directly.

My sisters and I watched Tale of Tales and I can’t say I recommend it. I won’t give away any spoilers except that most of the characters weren’t nearly as clever as they thought they were. As you can imagine this leads to disasters and plans back firing. Write about one of your character’s plans back firing because he thought he was too clever for those around him. What didn’t your character account for? How does your character handle things going wrong?

Think about questions you have that remain unanswered. Do you feel that there are answers to these questions out there? If so, what has stopped you from seeking out the answers? Or are these questions that tend to be more philosophical and thus are harder if not impossible to answer? Write a poem about these questions. Why do they fascinate you? Are there any specific answers that you hope are true?

We’re about to reach that part of the year where I wish I knew how to crochet things. There are always cute scarfs and hats this time of year that people made themselves that way. Maybe these animal inspired patterns will be the inspiration I need to learn. I really love the octopus one! Write a scene that features some animal inspired clothing. It doesn’t have to be cute stuff like this it could just be an animal print item or snake-skin boots.

Write a poem about an experience that you wanted and expected to enjoy but ended up hating or being disappointed in. How was the experience different from the expectations? Was there a specific factor that you hadn’t counted on that was the cause of your disappointment? Will you give the experience another chance under different circumstances?

This skeleton was actually created by found pieces of sea coral and assembled by artist Gregory Halili. I think it’s an awesome creation and it has certainly set my mind off thinking about all the what ifs that we could write inspired by this. It has me picturing a race of undersea humanoid creatures that have coral based skeletons. In fact the coral reefs are actually burial grounds for this humanoid race. Today let your mind run wild with the idea of a skeleton made out of something other than bones.